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Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Designing A Neighborhood For The Creative Class In A Week
EXCERPT from the discussion at a charrette in Rockville, Maryland last week:
...a place must be created that captures the imagination of the young, educated 'creative class'. No longer seduced by office parks with out-dated marble lobbies, these workers are attracted to loft living and downtown intensity that reflects their self-image as 'worker-as-artist'.
From CoolTown Studios:
Welcome to the cool way to plan a town — the charrette — designing an entire community (complete with prospective engineering drawings and housing floor plans) in one intensive, collaborative week.The CoolTown blog has links to the charrette and to a poll on developments for the Creative Class.I happened by one of these today, but this is no ordinary charrette. It was being designed by one of the world's preeminent town planners, DPZ & Company, and 'produced' by a development team with no less than the following vision, in their own words...
...a place must be created that captures the imagination of the young, educated 'creative class'. No longer seduced by office parks with out-dated marble lobbies, these workers are attracted to loft living and downtown intensity that reflects their self-image as 'worker-as-artist'.
Rising from the cracked asphalt of an aging office park in north Rockville (Maryland) will be an explicitly green community of loft style units. Given the edgy moniker "Upper Rock District", it is a neighborhood that can evolve organically - like the great American urban environments - able to respond to changes in lifestyle at home and in the work place."
May 26, 2004 in Architecture, New Urbanism, Urbanism | Permalink
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From: Neil Takemoto
Organization: CoolTown Studios
Reply-To: neilt@cooltownstudios.com
Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 13:00:54 -0400
To: PRO-URB@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: [Pro-Urb] DPZ goes creative class?
The developer said it was OK, so I've got a couple of images from the DPZ charrette final presentation given Tuesday night, at www.cooltownstudios.com. Scroll down for more info. Charrette info here: www.rockvillegateway.com, but does not include project images that I've noticed.
Skeptical about the creative class connection? Andres mentioned this was their first specifically-targeted creative class project, but something they'd like to get more aggressively into. I talked to the developers (JBG Companies) at length, and I have to say they have the genuine creative class soul. Here's a manifesto of sorts from the developer, referring to the project as 'next generation New Urbanism':
"...a place must be created that captures the imagination of the young, educated 'creative class'. No longer seduced by office parks with out-dated marble lobbies, these workers are attracted to loft living and downtown intensity that reflects their self-image as 'worker-as-artist'.
Rising from the cracked asphalt of an aging office park in north Rockville (Maryland) will be an explicitly green community of loft style units. Given the edgy moniker "Upper Rock District", it is a neighborhood that can evolve organically - like the great American urban environments - able to respond to changes in lifestyle at home and in the work place."
Neil Takemoto
CoolTown Studios
Posted by: Neil Takemoto at May 27, 2004 1:56:55 PM
